Squatting is a common exercise when training with free weights mounted on a bar. The exercise is normally accomplished by holding the bar across the back of the shoulders. This places unnecessary stress and discomfort on the back and shoulders.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,615 to Sides provides a weight lifting harness apparatus. The apparatus includes a torso plate arranged to rest on a person's back and a pair of curved shoulder straps extending from a top end of the torso plate for supporting a bar of free weights on the person's back and shoulders during a squatting exercise. The apparatus however is rigid and is not able to conform to varying shoulder widths or varying chest thickness' causing discomfort to a person using the apparatus. Added discomfort results from the bar of weights being positioned on the apparatus such that it is pressed against a base of the person's neck and the person's shoulders. The apparatus is unstable and unsafe as it is very narrow in relation to a standard bar used for mounting free weights and it does not adequately secure the bar of weights in place.